Most network performance problems occur in access network. One reason for performance variations (which is a type of performance problem) in access network is that the access network is a less controlled environment. Access networks are susceptible to radio/propagation environment changes.
For example, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is susceptible to impulse noise that may be caused by electric equipment (e.g., florescent light) i.e., noise appears on the DSL when light is on causing performance of the DSL to degrade. Impulse noise in DSL may also be synchronous with electricity cycle. For example, impulse noise is observed in a DSL every 8.3 ms when impulse noise has a frequency of 120 Hz and electricity is operating with a standard 60 Hz.
Wi-Fi is another type of access network which is susceptible to radio/propagation environment changes. For example, interference in Wi-Fi may be caused when neighboring Wi-Fi users operate their Wi-Fi equipment using the same frequency. Interference patterns in Wi-Fi may be intermittent. For example, when users with their Wi-Fi enabled portable devices are close to a victim Wi-Fi device, performance of the victim Wi-Fi device may degrade due to interferences from Wi-Fi enabled portable devices. Wi-Fi enabled portable devices may physically move which makes the task of correcting performance degradation in victim Wi-Fi challenging. Accordingly, access networks (e.g., Wi-Fi, DSL, etc.) may require continuous (e.g., 24/7) performance monitoring to have the ability to correct for performance degradation.
However, there are limitations to continuously monitoring of an access network. For example, DSLAM (DSL Access Multiplexer) and/or CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) modem is capable of continuously monitoring PHY (Physical) Layer performance, but DSLAM data is only available to network providers who are reluctant to share data. There is also no known standard interface to retrieve CPE data. Furthermore, there is no known direct relation between user experience (i.e., user of the access network) and PHY performance metric (e.g., data rate, error rate, etc.).